Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Knew His Name
Anna Mercer was alive.
That should have been enough.
For Lily, it almost was.
The moment a doctor entered the waiting room and said Anna had survived a severe diabetic episode complicated by pneumonia and exhaustion, Lily collapsed against Ethan’s side with such relief that she nearly slid from her chair.
But Ethan couldn’t stop thinking about the folder.
His name.
His father’s photograph.
And the impossible possibility that Lily’s arrival at his store had not been random.
Harborview Medical Center was crowded that evening.
Marlene stayed with the twins while nurses examined them.
Rosie and June were nine weeks old.
Both were underweight but healthy.
That fact alone told Ethan something about Anna.
Whatever had happened to her, neglect had not happened to the children.
Lily sat beside him wearing his coat like a blanket.
Every few minutes she asked the same question.
“Can I see Mom yet?”
And every time Ethan answered:
“Soon.”
Around eight thirty, Marcus arrived carrying a damp cardboard storage box.
Ethan met him in the corridor.
“You brought it here?”
“You told me not to leave anything important in the apartment.”
“Police okay with that?”
“They photographed everything first.”
Marcus handed him a manila folder.
ETHAN CALLAHAN was written across the front.
Same handwriting as the apartment number in Lily’s plastic bag.
Ethan opened it.
The first item was a photograph.
His father, Robert Callahan, looked about forty.
Beside him stood Anna Mercer.
Anna couldn’t have been more than twenty.
Behind them was a warehouse Ethan recognized immediately.
Callahan Supply.
His father’s old business.
Ethan looked at Marcus.
“This was before Anna worked for me.”
“About fifteen years before.”
A second photograph showed Anna holding a baby.
Not Lily.
Not the twins.
An older photograph.
Behind it someone had written:
MICHAEL — 2008.
Ethan frowned.
“Who’s Michael?”
“No idea.”
The next document was worse.
A notarized statement signed by Robert Callahan eleven years earlier.
Ethan scanned the first paragraph.
Then again.
His hands slowly lowered.
Marcus watched him.
“What?”
Ethan couldn’t answer.
The statement described an undisclosed trust.
Money Robert had diverted from his company before it collapsed.
Money intended for someone named Michael Mercer.
Ethan read the final sentence.
If anything happens to me before the boy reaches adulthood, Anna is to contact Ethan. He deserves to know what I did.
Ethan stared at his father’s signature.
“What did he do?”
Marcus handed him the handwritten note.
Ethan,
If Lily ever reaches you before I do, something has gone badly wrong.
Please don’t send her away.
She trusts the idea of you even though she has never met you.
I know how that sounds.
There are things about Robert, about Michael, and about the money that I should have told you years ago.
I was afraid.
That fear has already cost too much.
Anna
Ethan folded the letter.
For the first time in years, he felt genuinely frightened.
Not for himself.
For Lily.
A nurse approached.
“Mr. Callahan?”
“Yes.”
“Anna is conscious.”
Ethan forgot the folder.
“Can Lily see her?”
“For a few minutes.”
Lily was awake before he finished crossing the waiting room.
“Mom?”
“She’s awake.”
Lily ran.
A nurse intercepted her gently, reminding her to walk.
Ethan followed.
Anna Mercer looked smaller than he remembered.
Her dark hair was tangled around a pale face. An oxygen tube rested beneath her nose. Monitors blinked beside the bed.
When Lily entered, Anna began crying.
“Oh, baby.”
“Mom!”
Lily climbed carefully beside her.
Anna kissed her forehead again and again.
“Where are the girls?”
“Safe.”
“Together?”
“Yes.”
“Are you okay?”
Lily nodded.
“I bought a father.”
The room went silent.
Anna’s eyes snapped toward Ethan.
He stood in the doorway.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Anna whispered:
“You found him.”
Lily smiled weakly.
“I only had eleven dollars.”
Anna laughed once through her tears.
“That sounds about right.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Anna.”
“Ethan.”
“You knew she might come to me.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Not in front of her.”
Ethan looked at Lily.
Anna stroked her daughter’s hair.
“Can you go see your sisters with the nurse?”
Lily looked suspiciously between them.
“Are you going to fight?”
“No,” Ethan said.
Anna gave him a tired look.
“He might.”
“I don’t fight with sick people.”
Anna almost smiled.
Lily finally left.
The door closed.
Ethan placed the folder on the chair.
Anna saw it.
Color drained from her face.
“You went to the apartment.”
“Marcus did.”
“I wasn’t ready.”
“For what?”
“To tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Anna turned toward the window.
“Your father destroyed my family.”
Ethan said nothing.
“He also tried to save it.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No.”
Anna’s voice weakened.
“It won’t until you know about Michael.”
“Who is he?”
“My brother.”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
“The baby?”
“Yes.”
“You’re holding your brother?”
“Our mother died when he was born. I was seventeen. I raised him.”
“And my father knew him?”
Anna nodded.
“Robert gave Michael a job as soon as he was old enough. Warehouse work. Deliveries. Anything.”
Ethan remembered nothing of this.
“I was in college.”
“You were supposed to be.”
“What does that mean?”
Anna hesitated.
“Your tuition wasn’t paid the way you think it was.”
Ethan felt something cold move through him.
“Anna.”
“Robert’s business was failing.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the version he told you.”
“My father died with almost nothing.”
“That’s because he moved almost everything before the creditors came.”
“To Michael?”
“Some of it.”
“Why?”
Anna looked at him.
“Guilt.”
“For what?”
Before she could answer, alarms sounded in the corridor.
Not Anna’s monitors.
Another room.
Staff rushed past.
Anna flinched.
Ethan waited.
Finally she said:
“Michael discovered Robert was falsifying safety inspections at the warehouse.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Impossible.”
“I wish it were.”
“My father was many things, but—”
“One of the loading platforms collapsed.”
Ethan stopped.
A memory surfaced.
A newspaper article.
A warehouse accident.
One worker critically injured.
Settlement sealed.
He had been nineteen.
“Michael,” he whispered.
Anna nodded.
“He fell twenty-two feet.”
Ethan sat.
“He survived?”
“Yes. Barely.”
“And my father?”
“Paid for everything privately.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“Robert made sure you weren’t.”
Ethan looked at the statement again.
“How does Lily fit into this?”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“She doesn’t.”
“Then why send her to me?”
“Because there’s nobody else.”
“You have family.”
“No.”
“Friends?”
Anna looked away.
“What about the twins’ father?”
Her silence lasted too long.
“Anna?”
“He left before they were born.”
“And Lily’s father?”
Another silence.
Ethan felt a familiar anger rise.
“Also gone?”
Anna whispered:
“He died.”
Ethan softened slightly.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
“He was a good man.”
“What was his name?”
“Daniel.”
“Daniel what?”
“Mercer wasn’t his real last name.”
Ethan frowned.
“What are you saying?”
Anna looked toward the door as if checking Lily had not returned.
“Ethan, I need you to listen carefully.”
He leaned closer.
“Daniel knew your father.”
“How?”
“He worked for him.”
“At the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“What job?”
“He handled financial records.”
Ethan remembered the old accounting scandal Anna later uncovered at his company.
“You learned accounting from him.”
Anna nodded.
“And he discovered the money Robert hid?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stood.
“Then where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Daniel hid the final records before he died.”
“How did he die?”
Anna’s face changed.
Ethan saw fear.
Not grief.
Fear.
“A car accident.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Ethan calculated.
Lily was five.
“Before Lily was born.”
“Yes.”
“Did police investigate?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They called it an accident.”
“But you don’t believe them.”
Anna stared at him.
“No.”
The door opened.
Marcus stepped inside.
His expression was wrong.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
Marcus looked at Anna.
“You need to know this.”
He held up his phone.
“The apartment building’s security manager called me.”
Anna sat straighter.
“Why?”
“Someone entered your apartment after police left.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“Who?”
“They wore a hood. Cameras didn’t get a face.”
“Was anything stolen?”
Marcus nodded.
“The storage box was opened.”
Anna looked at Ethan.
“You brought the folder?”
“Yes.”
“What about the brass key?”
Ethan frowned.
“What brass key?”
Anna’s breathing changed.
“In the bottom of the box.”
“There wasn’t a key.”
Anna ripped the oxygen tube away.
“Anna—”
“He found it.”
“Who?”
She looked at Ethan with naked fear.
“The person Daniel was hiding from.”
Marcus’s phone buzzed.
He looked down.
His expression changed again.
“What now?” Ethan asked.
Marcus turned the screen around.
It was a photograph.
Taken through the hospital window.
Ethan.
Anna.
Standing beside her bed.
A message appeared underneath.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST BURIED.
Then another.
ASK HER WHAT ROBERT CALLAHAN DID THE NIGHT DANIEL DIED.
Ethan slowly turned toward Anna.
Her face had gone white.
May you like
And before he could ask the question, she whispered:
“He knows I’m alive.”
